Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

D50
Lv 6
D50 asked in Food & DrinkBeer, Wine & Spirits · 3 months ago

When its aging is done, is scotch diluted to its desired strength?

It starts out in the barrel at over 60% alcohol (120 proof) and most of it is under 100 proof when you buy it in the bottle. Is its strength adjusted by adding water before bottling? The same local water that was used to create the mash?

Update:

Sorry. You have to check carefully what category YA puts your question in, even when you're "in" the right category when you write it!

6 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    3 months ago

     Depends on the desired "strength" and many other factor z

     . . . . . . . . . .

    🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳

  • kswck2
    Lv 7
    3 months ago

    Scotch is diluted with highly filtered water, to bring the alcohol level down to the desired amount and then bottled. 

  • 3 months ago

    Yes, water is added to bring it to 40% ABV. Not much is known about the source of the water used in the dilution. My guess is that it's highly filtered or distilled so as not to mess with the tastes that were developed in making the mash and aging the spirits.

  • 3 months ago

    If this had been posted where it SHOULD be, in Food & Drink, I might have answered.

    But, it wasn't.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • Anonymous
    3 months ago

    I don't know a lot about brewing/distilling/ageing spirits. But I had thought, that it was only (traditionally) vodka and gin that was diluted. Since they are/can be made from fermenting virtually anything with a bit of sugar in (cereals, potatoes, even vegetable off-cuts/waste), the end result is generally unpalatable. So they're distilled up to 95-99% ABV to remove virtually all flavour and then diliuted back down to the desired concentration, usually 40%. 

    I had thought, whiskey, brandy and rum were distilled, roughly to their desired concentration. Maybe some minor dilution for quality/consistency control.

    There is undoubtedly a huge difference in aspects of the method between traditional and modern mass-marketed spirits, though principally the same. 

    But ethanol is pretty volatile stuff, it evaporates a lot faster than water. If it's aged for months to years, perhaps the original 60% ABV is to account for evaporative loss? Which will be slow in its container/barrel/vat etc, but unless completely sealed, some loss will be inevitable. 

    But this is merely speculation based on my very limited knowledge. So I'd love to be corrected and find out the real answer if I am on the wrong lines. Interesting question. 

  • Tavy
    Lv 7
    3 months ago

    Horrendous idea, try telling that to the Scots.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.